Whether making hobo stew over a campfire, building a model of a nuclear reactor or being able to identify different planets in the night sky, the Boy Scouts have been a mainstay in local communities for many years.

In fact, 100 years exactly.

The Legacy Museum on Main Street will be celebrating the 100th anniversary of Boy Scouting in West Georgia and East Alabama beginning 5 p.m. Thursday and running through March 31.

Historic badges, uniforms, photographs and more will be on display in the only exhibit celebrating the 100th anniversary in West Georgia.

Local scouts have loaned the museum personal items gathered during their years of scouting. And there’s plenty of memorabilia to go around.

What began with Clifford L. Smith, a former teacher at LaGrange College and the first superintendent of LaGrange City Schools, has provided needed skills, values and legacies for hundreds of students in the area.

“He was still superintendent when he became the first scoutmaster,” said Troup County historian Clark Johnson. “This is 1914. It said in the December article that they had been going for about 10 months.”

This puts the creation of local scout troops in February or March 1914, “which is kind of remarkable if you consider that the Scouts themselves were only created in 1910, so within three years it came to Troup County,” Johnson said.

In September 1919, five more troops were created at LaGrange textile plants - Unity, Unity Spinning, Elm City and two at Hillside - with the help of Fuller E. Callaway Sr. That same year, two Boy Scout troops in LaGrange and one in West Point were selling Liberty Bonds and War Savings Stamps to help fund World War I.

In 1948, Fuller E. Callaway Jr., also a scout, gave the deed to Camp Clifford Smith to the West Georgia Council of LaGrange.

“Fuller Jr., of course, is the one responsible for Camp Clifford Smith, which was named that because he was the first scoutmaster, but also Fuller Jr. knew him,” Johnson said.

In 1964, the West Georgia Council merged with the scout council in Columbus, forming the Chattahoochee Council. Camp Clifford Smith was closed, and Camp McKenzie near Fortson became the primary meeting spot for many local scouts.

In 1989, West Point’s George H. Lanier Council merged with the Chattahoochee Council, forming the current Chattahoochee Council. The current council is a combination of Troup County’s Yellow Jacket District; the George H. Lanier District in Chambers County, Ala., and Harris County; the Muskogee District of Russell County, Ala., and Muscogee County; and Lee County, Ala.’s, Saugahatchee District.

Today’s Chattahoochee Council serves more than 7,000 scouts in West Georgia and East Alabama.

The Legacy Museum aims to give tribute to all local scouts, while providing plenty of historical background for anyone who wants to remember their own days sleeping outside and studying the stars at scout camp.

“It’s an old organization, it’s always been good and always turned out leaders,” Johnson said.

— The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays. Admission is free.

Trey Wood can be reached at twood @ lagrangenews. com or (706) 884-7311, Ext. 228.